2-month-old girl found dead in bag near Edens

Round Lake Beach baby died of asphyxia

The body of a 2-month-old girl was found in a duffel bag near an Edens Expressway overpass in Northfield, and police said they were searching Friday for her father.

Illinois State Police located the body of Juanita Hernandez about 5 p.m. Thursday after Mt. Prospect police got a call from a man who told them the infant could be found wrapped in a blanket in a green tool bag under the Tower Road overpass, authorities said.

The Cook County medical examiner's office ruled the death a homicide and the cause asphyxia after an autopsy Friday but did not say when or where Juanita died.

State police are calling her 29-year-old father a person of interest who was last seen at the family's Round Lake Beach home Monday.

Police declined to identify and would not comment on the whereabouts of the mother, who also lived in the two-story apartment building on Fairfield Road. Police were not sure if the parents were married.

"I have not spoken with the mother, but I would extend my great sympathy to her and her family," said Round Lake Beach Police Lt. Richard Chiarello.

The mother left the apartment Monday to look for a job, leaving Juanita and another daughter, 2, with the father, police said. When she returned later that day, they were gone, she told authorities.

On Tuesday, she learned that the 2-year-old was at a relative's home in Mt. Prospect, but Juanita and the father were missing, Chiarello said.

The mother notified Round Lake Beach police Wednesday that Juanita was missing, and police contacted other local departments as well as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, he said.

"We did not put out an Amber Alert," said Chiarello, who said the information available at the time wasn't fresh. "It was 72 hours old. We didn't even have a vehicle to look for."

On Thursday, Mt. Prospect police got a call at 3:55 p.m. from a man who described himself as a family friend. He reported the location of Juanita's body, police said. The caller is not a suspect, Mt. Prospect police said.

Warren Shorman, 27, who lives next door to the Round Lake Beach family, said Juanita's mother told him Monday that she last saw her daughter lying with her father on the couch.

"When she came back, he was gone," Shorman said.

He said Juanita's father had been out of work but had been collecting scrap metal to sell to junkyards.

Deborah Brady, senior case manager for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said her agency got the case file late Thursday. Before anything could be posted on the Internet, the center got an e-mail from police about Juanita's death, she said.

"When a tragedy like this happens, there's no words to explain it," Brady said.